If someone owned the dam and permitted it to become pregnant, they are the breeder. Not a good, responsible breeder, but the breeder nonetheless, and they should be labelled as such. I hate it when I hear the term " Pet Overpopulation." There isn't any pet overpopulation.
The shelters are not generally full of wads of feral puppies, which have miraculously sprung forth without any human influence. They are mostly full of adolescent dogs that were once owned by someone who later decided it was too much trouble to be a responsible dog owner so they dropped it off or turned it loose. Ninety-four per cent of dogs in the shelter are dogs that have never attended one obedience lesson. The number one reason dogs end up in shelters is not because they were
born, but because they were abandoned by slothful inhumane people who purported to "love" them when they were tiny and cute.
People own intact females they don't watch or confine when they are in the heat so they get bred by the intact males that irresponsible people don't watch or confine, and others think it would be a good idea to "let her have a litter" or let the kids see the "miracle of birth," or worse people who own a purebred so they are sure they MUST breed it because it is Full Blooded and Has Papers, but either way, they consciously give or sell the puppies to people who say they want them and then discard them when they find out they have to feed, house and train them.
So there is plenty of human under-responsibility...not pet overpopulation.